Jenni Rivera's family identifies remains, to return to Long Beach

The family of Mexican-American music star Jenni Rivera has identified her remains from a plane crash Sunday in Mexico and the remains were returned to Long Beach Thursday night.

"We have received 100 percent confirmation that my sister Jenni is gone to be with the Lord," her brother Pedro Rivera Jr. said Thursday afternoon during a press conference at their mother's home in Lakewood. "She is in the presence of God now. They did show pictures to my brothers of the body; it is not the full body."

Three other brothers of Rivera, a Long Beach native, accompanied her remains on a Thursday night flight from Mexico to Long Beach Airport.

Escorted by police, her casket was then driven to a Long Beach mortuary, where dozens of fans waited.

Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said DNA tests are still pending. The singer's remains will be given to the family once the tests are completed in coming days.

"They did show some pictures to where Juan (Rivera) said, 'That is my sister, I don't need to see anymore,'" Pedro Rivera Jr. said. "Gus (Rivera) saw them (and ) he said, 'That is my sister.' They didn't even have to wait for the DNA. They just said, 'This is my sister.'"

As the news spread Thursday of the certainty of Rivera's death, a crowd of 60 to 80 friends and fans gathered at the Lakewood home, where a memorial has grown this week.

Family friend Rogelio Macias said he had known Jenni Rivera since the late 1980s. The 43-year-old Rivera was born and raised in Long Beach.

"I am very sad," Macias said about hearing the confirmation of Rivera's death. "I am in shock right now.

"It was very tragic, very different from a terminal illness."

Longtime fan Nadia Magallanes could hardly contain herself, as she spoke of the singer's death.

"I'm feeling great pain in my heart. I still can't believe it," she said, crying uncontrollably. "I understand what the family is going through. I lost my father five years ago."

She said the family should "continue to keep (their) faith in God and stay united."

Victor Alvarez, manager of Rivera's backup band, said he was with Rivera the night of her death.

"We were with her at the concert in Monterrey (Mexico)," he said. "We flew to LA and she flew to Mexico (City) and that's when the tragedy happened."

Mexican authorities say the private plane went down early Sunday morning south of the northern city of Monterrey on its way to Toluca, a town near the Mexican capital in the center of the country. Rivera and six others were killed.

It plunged almost vertically from more than 28,000 feet and hit the ground in a nose-dive at a speed that may have exceeded 600 miles per hour, Mexico's top transportation official said Tuesday.

Secretary of Communications and Transportation Gerardo Ruiz Esparza told Radio Formula that the twin-engine turbojet hit the ground 1.2 miles from where it began falling.

Although Ruiz did not offer any explanation of what may have caused the plane to plummet, he was quoted as saying only that "The plane fell from an altitude of 28,000 feet ... It may have hit a speed higher than 1,000 kph (621 mph)."

Ruiz said the pilot, Miguel Perez Soto, had a valid Mexican pilot's license that would have expired in January. Photos of a temporary pilot's certificate issued by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration found amid the wreckage said that Perez was 78 years old.

The transportation department said Wednesday that he was flying on a U.S. pilot's license that had no limitations preventing him from flying the route in Mexico.

Ruiz said there is no age limit for flying a civil aviation aircraft, though for commercial flights it's 65. A pilot as old as 78 would be unusual in the United States.

Officials also said Thursday that two state police officers had been arrested on suspicion of stealing unspecified items from the scene of the plane crash.

The Nuevo Leon state government said authorities found images of the scene on the smartphone of one of the officers, who is 23, while trying to determine how the Mexican media got photographs of the secured site, including images of body parts and personal documents.

Rivera, known as the "Diva de la Banda," died while her career was peaking. She was perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated Mexico regional style, and had branched out into acting and reality television.

"She was always happy, she was very nice to a lot of people. A lot of people depended on her," Alvarez said. "Her music will be remembered forever because so many people followed her. She had a lot of fans."